The cheesiest lawsuit I've heard of in years...

That's stupid. The judge ought to slap his ass silly and order him to pay court costs for both sides.

A Morgantown man, his mother and his friend are suing McDonald's for $10 million.

The man says he bit into a hamburger and had a severe allergic reaction to the cheese melted on it.

Jeromy Jackson, who is in his early 20s, says he clearly ordered two Quarter Pounders without cheese at the McDonald's restaurant in Star City before heading to Clarksburg.

His mother Trela Jackson and friend Andrew Ellifritz are parties to the lawsuit because they say they risked their lives rushing Jeromy to United Hospital Center in Clarksburg.

The lawsuit alleges Jeromy "was only moments from death" or serious injury by the time he reached the hospital.

"We're interested in seeing McDonald's take responsibility and change a systemic quality control problem that endangers the lives of up to 12 million Americans with allergies," said Timothy Houston, the Morgantown lawyer representing the plaintiffs.

Houston said his clients were in Morgantown in October 2005 and stopped at the Star City McDonald's on the way home to Clarksburg. Jeromy Jackson was living with his mother at the time.

Jeromy did his part to make it known he didn't want cheese on the hamburgers because he is allergic, Houston said.

He told a worker through the ordering speaker and then two workers face-to-face at the pay and pick-up windows that he couldn't eat cheese, Houston said.

"By my count, he took at least five independent steps to make sure that thing had no cheese on it," Houston said. "And it did and almost cost him his life."

Nice. Except that speaking of quality control and accepting responsibility, he didn't take the sixth step that would have ensured that the quarter-pounder he consumed wouldn't have cheese on it:

Open the box and inspect the Quarter-Pounder his own damn self.

It's hard for me to imagine why it should be more important for McDonald's workers to ensure he got a no-cheese burger than it would be for him. If he can't be bothered to take some responsibility and look for himself, then why should anyone else be expected to do so?

Hell, if his mom and friend think they have a claim against McDonalds simply because they "risked their lives" rushing him to the hospital (and I still don't see how they suffered any damages beyond compensation the time it took to do that), then they ought to be suing Jeremy's sorry ass for contributory negligence! After all, Jeremy is just as much part of that quality-control process as McDonalds is.

I have the same issue regarding cheese. I've had that happen to me so often that I quit going to MacDonalds. I've taken the cheeseburger back to the counter complained and then had the replacement burger again be a cheeseburger.

If your life depends on not eating cheese - why go to a fast food place where teens are preparing your food? And then, if you are that stupid, you don't even check the burger? Come ON. This guy most obviousy did this on purpose to freeload off a major corporation.

This doesn’t make sense. The fact is, if you have a deathly allergic reaction to anything you would go out of your way to insure you don't eat it, and you especially take the extra precaution of looking at what you’re about to consume. He should be held accountable for his own actions, or in this case inaction. Let’s put it this way, if I’m allergic to wheat flour, and I decided to go to a fast food place and order a bunless cheeseburger, and they forgot to remove the bun, and then I ate it, am I entitled to sue them? Hmmm let me think about that… umm, no. It’s his own fault! Sure, employees in fast food restaurants should be more careful, however the responsibility still lies upon the consumer. How does that story go… buyer be aware.

Plus, how are we to know that he didn’t plant the cheese in it himself. That wouldn’t be so hard, and he could have done it on the way to the hospital. If you don’t think that there are people who would do such a thing, think again. There’s always someone without any integrity that’s just waiting to make a quick buck. His story just doesn’t add up and it sounds to me like he may have done this purposefully for the money. I seriously hope he looses.

"He told a worker through the ordering speaker and then two workers face-to-face at the pay and pick-up windows that he couldn't eat cheese..."

At what point does that cross the line into obnoxious? Somewhere between 'Certainly, sir, we'll take care of that for you.' and 'Enough already, I'll show that motherfucker 'no cheese'...'??

I've worked fast food. There's something about it that hardens and desensitizes you, makes you callous...so that you'll wear part of a child's skull on your head or mock burn victims...(no wait, that's Beauchamp's imaginary Iraq). But, being paid next to min wage to be nice to people who think you are beneath them can grate on you, enough to where it's hard to resist the impulse to fuck with them in retalliation. Is it right that my friend gave a guy a burrito LOADED with onions when he obnoxiously demanded a no-onion burrito b/c he was allergic? No, but I sure laughed at the time.We didn't believe him. We just thought he was an impolite prick who hated onions and was pulling the allergy card to keep them off his burrito. Alas, this guy knew enough to look before he leapt, found the onions, and called corporate and we got bitched out. Oh well. The point here is that you don't put your life in the hands of minimum wager earners. If McD's were to pay for the control he wants, a $.90 cheeseburger would cost $20.

And, DEATHLY allergic to cheese, and he doesn't carry an epi pen? WTF?

That's not the point...the point is, Mickey D's apparently has a hearing problem.

Actually, that is the point. Yeah, I should be able to stroll thru any intersection in the USofA across in the crosswalk, and not get hit by a speeding automobile.

But guess what? if I step out in front of a city bus and get crunch, it ain't the drivers fault. 25,000 pounds of speeding bus always has the right of way. In Florida, you're required to give up the right-of-way if doing so prevents a crash.

If you had a food allergy that could kill you, and you could very easily check something like a hamburger for the presence of cheese, wouldn't you have enough sense to check to make sure someone one didn't fuck up?

I always check my orders to make sure I got what I ordered. Don't you?